The points made by Merson regarding the Moyes contract and Carroll comments are spot on.

What Carroll has said smacks of huge complacency and Moyes needs to come down hard and fast on this issue. Clearly the complacency needs knocking out of these “too good to go down” prima donnas. We all know now that Bilic was not going to be capable of getting the squad to regularly play at the level of commitment, intensity and tactical nous required to guarantee PL survival.

It is interesting to hear Merson talk about the players working hard etc because I know someone who was on the training staff when he played under ‘Arry at Portsmouth. This acquaintance reckoned that Merson was one of the laIest training senior pros he’d ever encountered.

It tells you everything about where Moyes is in his career that they have only given him a six-month contract. But that is no good for anybody.

It’s much harder to have authority in the dressing room and the respect of all your players if they know you are basically just on trial.

If the owners don’t trust him enough to give him a proper contract, why should the players?

And how is he going to be able to sign anyone in January when they know he could be gone by the end of the season, or even sooner if it all goes wrong?

I find it strange all these teams who are trying to appoint interim coaches so they can go after a glamour name in the summer. Tomorrow never comes.

But what worries me even more about West Ham is the attitude.

“I have seen a West Ham team 100-times better than this one go down”

Andy Carroll said this week the players aren’t worried about going down because there is too much quality in the dressing room.

I have got news for him – I have seen a West Ham team 100-times better than this one go down.

That 2003 team with Paolo Di Canio, Jermain Defoe, Joe Cole, Michael Carrick, Glen Johnson and Les Ferdinand got relegated and you can’t tell me this one has anywhere near as much talent.

They need to start getting worried. They don’t just get beat, they get hammered – 3-0 at home to Brighton, 4-1 at home to Liverpool, 3-0 at Newcastle, 4-0 at Manchester United. They were 2-0 up at Crystal Palace and still didn’t win.

They need to get out of the mentality that they are too good to go down. They need to get real. I don’t like that kind of talk at all.

Moyes won’t find it easy. They have some hard fixtures.

If they don’t beat Watford in his first game they will have to have a go at home to Leicester, which is dangerous against such a good counter-attacking team.

Then they’ve got to go to his old club Everton, who are fighting for their lives, and then it’s Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal! Unless he gets off to a flyer, I’d be amazed if they’re not still in the bottom three at Christmas, and then he’s already in trouble with the fans.

They are going to have to be patient because if Moyes manages to reproduce the things he did at Everton, he’ll do alright, but if he doesn’t, there will be unrest.

It’s not an appointment to get the fans excited but the backlash so far has been a bit over the top. He deserves a chance.

But where are West Ham going? What is the long-term plan? They have a huge, fabulous stadium and with the money they have they should be in the top six or seven.

Moyes needs to get them fit because they don’t look it at the moment and when your players are complaining they are not being worked hard enough, alarm bells ring.

He needs to find a shape as well, and he needs to get their confidence back.

He needs to get them organised and work out who plays up front as well, because Carroll with Javier Hernandez wide is not going to work. Is it going to be little and large up front together or does one of them stay on the bench? Tough choices.

But what support is he going to get? The fans don’t like him and he hasn’t even started yet, and if he wants £30m to spend in January, are the owners going to give it to him? I don’t think so.

This is not a great team. If you put all the West Ham players up for sale tomorrow, how many of them would be bought?

I think Moyes is a decent manager but I feel for him here. This is going to be tough.

Keys was born in 1957. The following year, West Ham were promoted to the top division, where they stayed for 20 years. Since then, we have spent 9 years in the second tier, out of 60 years. Yet, Keys writes that as he grew up, we seemed tonspend more time in the old second division than the first division. And I am expected to take what he says seriously. The hairy, shitty chested cuntbag.

Interesting piece popped up on newsnow a little while ago, sorry if done

I know its by Richard the ape-man Keys, but nonetheless, intriguing..

Getting Hammered

on Wednesday, 08 November 2017. Posted in Richard Keys Blog

If the faithful at West Ham don’t get behind David Moyes their team is sunk. Why is Moyes getting hammered in the manner that he is?

He’s a good man. He’s an honest man, so that makes him something of a rarity in football, and he’s a smart man. He’s also a man that’s been badly abused and more than a little bit used since leaving Everton, where he’d done an outstanding job on buttons.

He made mistakes at United. He’s said so himself. To many of us, it was quite obvious early that his appointment there wasn’t going to work out - not because he couldn’t do the job, but because he wasn’t getting the backing he NEEDED to do the job. When the end came it was a relief for everybody.

I think he was badly advised over taking a job in Spain and the decision to follow Sam at Sunderland was plain madness - especially when he had so many other offers. Paulo DI Canio and his cronies messed that club up big time. Sunderland are still paying off debt racked up at that time. I heard last season that they were paying for 27 players no longer at the club! What chance have you got in those circumstances? There simply was NO money to make the team better.

Now Moyes has rolled the dice again and decided he can restore his battered reputation at West Ham. Everyone connected with that club had better hope that he does.

I have no doubts that he can, but come January The Hammers need to spend - and let Moyes do the spending. Everyone previously connected with transfers needs to step away. Everyone.

The owners at West Ham had also better start being more realistic about their ambitions. Who on earth convinced them that moving to an athletics stadium would be the key to CL football? Oh, and on the back of a spend around £40m or so in each season since.

Look. West Ham is a fine football club. Bobby Moore was my first footballing hero. I loved the guy. Geoff Hurst won England the World Cup! Billy Bonds was a warrior and a leader any team would’ve wanted. There was Devonshire, Lampard, Brooking and the brilliant Cottee and McAvennie, who fired John Lyall’s team to the club’s best ever finish. Lyall, of course, also won the FA Cup twice. There was also that Cup Winners’ Cup success in ‘65.

These were the days of ‘The Academy’, when West Ham did things the ‘West Ham’ way - days that have long since past. Long since past.

Big Sam would often refer to ‘winning’ football when he was at Upton Park. Quite right too.

As I grew up the Hammers seemed to spend more time in the old second division than they did the top league. Brooking was in charge when they slipped back again. Sam took over when it happened again, after a close squeak under Alan Curbishley. And we all know what happened when Sheffield United cried ‘foul’ that season.

Yes, West Ham are a fine club, rich in tradition, but stuck in a time warp. CL football is not achievable on a £40m/year spend. And look closely at what they buy - ageing mercenaries, on average at £12m each, whose contracts are never renewed. That kind of policy will work for a while but eventually it’ll bite you.

There is nothing more certain in the East End right than the club’s current owners are wanting to sell up, for huge profit, and get out of town. I don’t blame them. The UK is a capitalist society and profit shouldn’t be a dirty word. How you achieve that aim can be though.

If West Ham’s loyal fans want to vent their anger - do it at the Boardroom, not David Moyes. If you don’t rally behind your new manager, I repeat, you’re sunk. These are critical times for West Ham. Get behind the manager, get yourselves safe, get hammered in celebration and you’ll know who to blame if it doesn’t work out. It won’t be David Moyes.